Saturday, June 28, 2014

We are becoming famous in the quilt blog world for something that that is increasingly hard to find……bad photos.

And with no delay, here are some more. (Even Gibby complained about his unflattering picture on the last post. I have lots of excuses. First is that I'm a lousy photographer. Second is that I am knee deep in stuff. 3rd is that for some reason my phone has stopped all communication with my iMac. I can't even edit my totally inadequate pictures. )…..

This is a pile of half square triangles that will turn into the last border of the last quilt of our new fabric collection. The fabric collection is called Crazy For Red!

We're pretty excited about it. It the same shades and hues of Midwinter Reds with lots more prints, people! They will fit right in, assuming you have any Midwinter Reds left. If you missed out on Midwinter Reds - here is your chance.

Are you getting a bit ahead of yourself? I empathize. Lexington hasn't left the warehouse yet and we are making patterns and quilts with this new group. So, not to be redundant, but to explain…. Lexington will ship out next month. Crazy For Red will go out 3 months after that. In the meantime, we are creating like mad.

Oh, what else showed up to add to the chaos??? These wonderful scraps of Crazy For Red...

These have your name written all over them, don't they?

So, first things first. It's give-away time. Comment on this post and you can get a priority mail box jammed packed with Crazy For Red strips. Or - you could win this. A fat quarter collection of every print in the Lexington group.

Are you confused? Me too. Just know that if I draw your name (post before midnight July 1st) you will get a box of Minick and Simpson fabric - either Lexington or Crazy For Red.

Want to see some more? This is Zip Code made with Crazy For Red. It's going off to Kari, my expert machine quilter. She is only going to baste this one. I'm looking forward to showing you my progress on this one as I hand quilt it.

We'll be putting up the new set of patterns in our Etsy shop in about a week.

What else??? Right after I finish the last border on the last quilt and box them all up, I'm sending out the first installment of the Austin Bluebird Sampler Block of the Month. Yep, if you signed up - expect your first package in about a week. I would say next weekend, but since it's the 4th - mail will be held up a bit.

Remember, make a comment here and you could be a winner of either Lexington or Crazy For Red fabric….

Sunday, June 22, 2014

First off, I want to thank all the ladies at the Genesee Star Quilt Guild for a exciting lecture and trunk show. What a great afternoon, ladies!

Second of all I want to update you all on the hoop situation. I quickly sold out of the hoops I had here and ordered all that I could from the warehouse. Those sold out too. Those hoops should arrive here in Ann Arbor in 1-3 days and your orders will go out then. I re-ordered from the warehouse and they are back ordered. Hopefully they will be here in a week or two. I took down the hoops form the Etsy store until there are back in stock. Keep watching here and I'll post when we are again - knee deep in hoops.

I am also working on a future project - one of our new patterns for a line that will come out this fall…..

This is my "in progress" photo. Not very exciting, is it? I'll show these quilt tops soon. I don't want to get to ahead of ourselves as Lexington isn't in shops yet. (It will be soon!!!).

So - to keep you informed - Lexington, our indigo and cream collection, will be in stores in August

These are the Lexington patterns…..

And the mysterious red and cream collection (with the same shades as Midwinter Reds!) will be showing here shortly. Whew. Can you keep up?

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

I'm just a bit late for this Flag Day picture, but here it is. I was actually in New York on flag day. The city was beautiful. I was in town to do a lecture trunk show and a class for the Empire Quilt Guild.

I had a great time and any time I can get to New York is ok by me. Polly met me for 1 day and we did a bit of shopping and walking. What do 2 ladies who wake up very early do in the city? Well, they go to Soho and stand in line for a Cronut.

What is a Cronut? Well, it's a fantastic combination of puff pastry (croissant) cut into a doughnut shape, then deep fried and rolled in sugar. Oh, and then they add pastry cream inside with a bit of strawberry jam. Was it good? Oh yes. Would I wait in line every morning for one? Probably not, but I sure would one time. This was the tiny little bakery that sells out of these wondrous things about an hour after they open up at 8am. There is also a 2 Cronut limit. Yeah, there is a bit of a black market of Cronuts in the Big Apple.

Oh, and there were several hundred people in front of us when we got there about 7:30. They only accommodated about 30 or 40 people behind us in line before they were sold out for the day. Do not despair. They have other "special" things they make. We bought some madeleines also to take with us back to the hotel. Fabulous.

What else? Well, friends, food, and walking, - and sweet talking cab drivers into taking me 4 blocks with 3 huge suitcases. You see, if a cabbie sees you with 3 suitcases he assumes you need a ride to the airport. The suitcases were filled with quilts for the trunk show. Some of those fellas are less than hospitable when they know the fare will be small. Hey, I'm a big tipper and I let them know!

After my class I treated myself to one of my more fanciful obsessions - the Japanese bookstore.

Shelf after shelf of Japanese quilt books. All beautiful. All inspiring. And all unintelligible (to me). But I can follow the wonderful graphics and I don't have to read a word of Japanese. This place is right across the street from Bryant Park in the Garment District and it is called Kinokuniya Books.

There was a delivery here in Ann Arbor while I was out of town. Remember when I said we would be carrying hand quilting tools….. well the hoops are here….

I found this hoop at International Quilt Market and boy, was I happy to find it. This is not the hoop you see at chain stores. I have never even seen it at quilt shops. It is a German handcrafted beauty. Smooth, dense hardwood with unobtrusive hardware. It is the only hoop I have found that compares to my 35 year old, anonymous wood hoop. This does not bend at all. It will last you your quilting career.

When I handed it over to Bill (who is a cabinet maker - and now a semi-retired cabinetmaker) he quickly told me to order them. You see, he has been tinkering around trying to recreate my old one. He did make one but it took him many, many hours. You think it would be easy. He said it was easy actually - but it's involved. These are well made - and have a price to match. They cost $46.00. You can find them here in our Etsy store.

I have some new Japanese needles ordered and they will be in our store too. Keep watching.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Thank you everyone for the subscriptions to the Austin Bluebird Sampler. It is now filled. I am writing this on my phone at the airport, and I'll have more to say next week. The complete pattern package will be available in the fall on our website and in many if your favorite shops.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Whew! That was a busy day. Over half of the subscriptions for the Austin Bluebird Sampler sold out on the first day. I don't expect this to be open by the weekend.

Don't despair. If you miss out on our exclusive Block of the Month (all of the same fabrics from Grant Park, Lexington, Crazy For Red, and Bella Solids - just like mine) - the pattern bundle will be available at your favorite quilt shop later in the fall.

If you want to join our Block of the Month - here is the LINK.
Or go to www.minickandsimpson.com and find it there. Sorry, but right now we can't have "subscriptions" in our Etsy store. It's just not an option there, but all 12 patterns for Austin Bluebird Sampler will eventually be found there - when we get the last ones proofread and printed :)

If it does sell out quickly, the good news is that the first mailing will edge up a bit - I can ship out the first installment around the 1st week of July.

Keep watching here. We should have other goodies to go along with the Austin Bluebird Sampler Quilt. I'm talking about threads, needles, even quilting hoops - should you be so inclined.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Say hello to our new Block of the Month - The Austin Bluebird Sampler.

We are tickled to to announce that this Block of the Month subscription is starting right now - HERE

You can find it at MinickandSimpson.com.

You will get 12 installments. Each month you will get the complete pattern, and all the fabric to make a section of this quilt. It has 6 appliqué blocks and many easily pieced blocks.

The quilt was inspired by an antique quilt found at an estate sale in Texas. The folky bird appliqué quilt charmed us and we wanted to reproduce it somehow. The bottom left hand block with the pair of bluebirds is from the original quilt. We designed some more appliqué blocks and stitched them all together with an assortment of pieced blocks. This sampler quilt is like many sampler album quilts of the late 19th century.

Your subscription price is $26.95 per month with the shipping added on automatically - $32.95. This will be charged to your credit card monthly for the next 12 months. This is for US shipping. If you are an international customer - please email me HERE and we can make arrangements.

The subscription is very limited. We only have so much fabric here to fulfill this Block of the Month.
We will start shipping in late July. The finished top measures 75" x 87"

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Here is a little sneak peak at our next project. We can't wait to unveil it to you. It will be soon, I promise.

There are more things afoot. Keep checking back.

My plans for today are to sit and stitch on the above. I had plans to do that on Monday too, but things got in the way. One of which was 40 bolts of fabric landing on the front porch. So you see…… many more things to come.

Laurie

All the rug hooking kits are sold out - Thanks So Much for helping Minick and Simpson help injured troops!! You are the best! - Polly